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Transmission Slipping !

Hi gang. I have a 2007 Touring Prius. I bought it in February of this year.
A Prius has "no transmission" according to the Toyota Service mechanic. Maybe not, but sometimes when I am driving on the freeway and either going up a hill or accelerating the car feels like it has a clutch or transmission slipping. The engine revs or races but there is no power happening. A couple of times when this has happened I pushed the pedal almost to the metal and the power kicked in. It is frightening cuz people drive in my freeway at 65 to 75 mph and I need to move out of their way and when it "slips" it is very difficult. I have another Prius a 2005 model and I have never had this problem.
Does anyone else have this problem ? Can anyone tell me what may be wrong ?

From what I understand, the Prius has a CVT - continuously variable transmission, which is a fancy way of saying it doesn't use pre-defined gears or shifting to achieve power transmission to the wheels. It is basically a belt driven transmission without gears. Try wikipedia if you need a detailed explanation. Sounds like you may have a problem. Take it to the dealer and get it diagnosed. Good luck.

Originally Posted by jon2223

Hi gang. I have a 2007 Touring Prius. I bought it in February of this year.
A Prius has "no transmission" according to the Toyota Service mechanic. Maybe not, but sometimes when I am driving on the freeway and either going up a hill or accelerating the car feels like it has a clutch or transmission slipping. The engine revs or races but there is no power happening. A couple of times when this has happened I pushed the pedal almost to the metal and the power kicked in. It is frightening cuz people drive in my freeway at 65 to 75 mph and I need to move out of their way and when it "slips" it is very difficult. I have another Prius a 2005 model and I have never had this problem.
Does anyone else have this problem ? Can anyone tell me what may be wrong ?

I am having the same

I am having the same problem--the car goes into neutral while I am driving and will not shift back into drive until I stop, which is not real convenient on the freeway. I am looking for others that have this problem as when I took the car to be serviced they told me it was not possible for the car to move from "drive" to "Neutral" while the car was in motion----but it does!!!!!

We have just started having

We live up a 3,000 foot mountain and the Prius has always been fine... getting a bit louder as the lawnmover engine stretches its legs, but still able to go at 55 uphill.

Recently, we have had the battery meter go down to 1 (purple) bar fairly early on in the climb and then it does not seem to recharge at all even in periodic dips and the engine revs without any extra power actually hitting the wheels. No warning lights at all. We can maybe make 45mph if we are lucky. It sounds and feels like the clutch is slipping and I suppose it is possible if the CVT belt is loose or summat.

I have been experiencing

I have been experiencing similar problems with my 2007 Prius. I never thought it a transmission problem, but the problems that you guys have articulated are similar to mine.

Bought my Prius three years ago. No problems for the first 30 months. During the summer, due to rampant AC use (Arizona summer) the hybrid battery on the Prius would often fall to the bottom purple lines. The car would have obvious problems accelerating. If you pushed the accelerator down it would rev up, but the car wouldn't "go" anywhere.

I continue to have these acceleration/law hybrid battery/ transmission problems six months later. The Prius doesn't accelerate like it used to, and it is very frustrating. I have taken it to several dealerships in AZ, and here in San Diego and the mechanics have not been able to find any problems; no error messages have been reported.

I love my Prius, but if I can't resolve this frustrating problem my next car is going to be an Insight. Advice? Similar problems?

I have a 2005 Prius with

I have a 2005 Prius with 127K miles on it. I live in an area where there are no hills. At speeds from 40-60 MPH the car lacks accelleration and acts like a slipping transmission, especially in the upper gears. I do not have any wanring lights, but the car does beep one as it powers down. Haven't taken it to the dealer yet, but will soon. The problem is getting worse by the day.

The prius doesn't have

The prius doesn't have actual gears to slip. From stuff I've read, I'd start with a load test on the 12volt battery and make sure it's good. After that I might consider having either the hybrid battery or the traction motor tested.

I located a site showing a

I located a site showing a disassembled Prius engine. It shows it having a clutch and pressure plate. I'm not able to find any other references to these parts on other sites. While, if really part of the Prius drivetrain this would explain the slipping, I cannot confim these parts are in a Prius. Here is the site I'm referencing: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-p...ne-reseal.html

At the bottom of that link,

At the bottom of that link, a guys says the drive plate that buffers pulse loading from the ICE to the drive train has known slipping issues. It's kind of like a clutch. That might be what you need to have checked out.